Genesis 13

Abram and Lot Separate

1So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the Negev.

2Now Abram was very heavy with livestock, with silver, and with gold.

3And he went by his stages from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the first, between Bethel and Ai,

4to the place of the altar that he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of Yahweh.

5And Lot also, who was going with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents.

6But the land could not support them dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to dwell together.

7And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite were then dwelling in the land.

8So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no quarreling between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are men who are brothers.

9Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you go to the left, then I will go to the right; and if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”

10And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that all of it was well watered—this was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zoar.

11So Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward; and they separated, each from his brother.

12Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, while Lot dwelt among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents as far as Sodom.

13Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly evil and sinful against Yahweh.

14And Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes now and look, from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;

15for all the land that you see, I will give it to you and to your seed forever.

16And I will make your seed like the dust of the earth, so that if a man could count the dust of the earth, then your seed also could be counted.

17Arise, walk about through the land, its length and its breadth, for to you I will give it.”

18So Abram moved his tents and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to Yahweh.

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Cross-references in this chapter

Where this passage connects across Scripture — each link typed and reasoned, part of the AIT Bible Nexus Chart.

Abram and Lot Separate

• quotation Galatians 3:16 — Paul interprets the promise to Abram's 'seed' as fulfilled in Christ.
• parallel Genesis 15:5 — The promise to make Abram's seed innumerable, like dust of the earth, parallels the later promise likening his seed to the stars.
• allusion Genesis 19:24 — The narrator's parenthetical 'before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah' points forward to the actual destruction narrated in Genesis 19.
• allusion Genesis 2:8 — The plain is described as 'like the garden of Yahweh,' echoing the well-watered garden of Eden.
• allusion Genesis 12:8 — Abram returns to the same altar between Bethel and Ai where he first called on the name of Yahweh.
• allusion Genesis 18:1 — The oaks of Mamre where Abram settles become the site of Yahweh's later appearance to him.
• allusion Genesis 12:6 — The note that the Canaanite was dwelling in the land echoes the earlier notice given at Abram's arrival.
• thematic Genesis 18:20 — The exceeding wickedness of Sodom's men noted here anticipates Yahweh's declaration that the outcry against Sodom is grave.
• thematic Genesis 12:7 — The land promise to Abram and his seed repeats and expands the earlier promise given at Shechem.
• thematic Genesis 22:17 — The innumerable-seed promise is renewed and confirmed after the binding of Isaac.